As time starts ticking off to 2024’s general elections the ANC seems intent on blaming load-shedding on everything except the true reasons.
In a move that surprised many, perhaps including himself, minerals & energy minister Gwede Mantashe presented a lecture at the Wits Business School on Thursday titled “Energy transition leadership masterclass”.
He blamed load-shedding on the shutdown of Komati power station. Like electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa a few weeks earlier, he omitted the fact that as Komati limped to its end the station was contributing less than 120MW to the grid.
Load-shedding is also, Mantashe said, “a consequence of wider access to electricity”. From 1994 to 2022 the share of the population with access to electricity increased from about 57% to 87%.
But as Mantashe, who was appointed to the electricity council in 1993, should know, it is no use expanding access if you do not also expand supply. There is now less electricity available per person than there was 30 years ago. Electricity consumption per person was 3,800kWh in 1994, it now stands at 3,300kWh.
South Africans won’t be gaslit by ministers. We have load-shedding because power stations were poorly maintained as corruption was allowed to run rampant at Eskom, and because the ANC did not listen when it was told in 1998 that it should start investing in new generation capacity to cater for increasing demand.
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